


Binary Souls

by Grey_Unicorn



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: #alternate universe, #forgottenfell, Anger, Angst, Dark, Forgiveness, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loneliness, Lots of Angts, Mention of fight and blood, One-Shot, Rust has issues, Science Stuff, difformities, mention of Gaster and childhood memories, mutations, physical malformation, so does Alphys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 20:36:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grey_Unicorn/pseuds/Grey_Unicorn
Summary: It's been years since Alphys and him saw each other. And he stopped calling her a long time ago.But when she calls him in the middle of the night, begging for help because she really fucked up, years of anger and spite melt away in a flicker of the soul.A small story about new experiences, forgiveness, and friendship.





	Binary Souls

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot for the Undertail fanfic contest.  
> CATEGORY : ANGST
> 
> There is no smut here, though! And it's also the first time I post something in english. Oh boi am I absolutely terrified... Little warning in case you haven't read the tags : Forgottenfell!Sans is named Rust. He's still a Sans, though, give him ketchup, try to not piss him off, and it should be fine. :3
> 
> I want to thank, again, Lusewing/GoldenThread for her help with the translation, and her proofreading <3 (and go check her stories, she's a great writer)

Unwillingly, Rust opened his sockets and swore under his breath. His fucking phone was ringing, and whoever was calling him had pulled him out of a blissful sleep, devoid of worry or care. They would suffer for it. Through the haze of his hangover, he reached for the annoying little device near his mattress, found it, brought to his eyes, immediately hissing at the burning light emanating from the screen, before answering it..

“ **what** ” he barked, his voice deeper and rougher than usual.

At first, there was nothing but an odd silence at the other end of the line. Then, a familiar, shy voice…

 

“ _R... Rust?”_

 

He frowned. _Alphys?_ Yes, Alphys. After all those years, she still had his phone number?

He glanced at the little digital clock on his nightstand and growled.

“holy shit alphys, i seriously hope you have a pretty fuckin' good reason to wake me up at three in the fuckin' morning.” he spat, glaring at the ceiling.

Again, silence, punctuated by barely audible whimpers and moans.

 

“ _Rust... can you... can you come to the lab, please?”_

 

“in the middle of the night ? you fucking kidding me?”

 

“ _I need you...”_

 

“i ain't going to hotland when i have to get up and go to work in three hours, alphys. hell, i ain't going to hotland at all, period. so either you tell me what you have to over the phone, or you get your ass in Snowdin.”

 

They had hardly ever seen each other over the past few years. And he hadn't put a single foot in the lab for... even longer. There wasn't anything left for him in that place. Or maybe, on the contrary, there was too much.

 

He'd stopped trying to call or see her years ago. When she picked up her phone, it was always to say that she couldn't talk for very long because her work was important, and Asgore wanted her to do this, and that, and was expecting results, and he was so so lonely and sad, that poor insane, _lunatic, psychotic_ dictator who almost sentenced them both to death…

 

So, what? He, too, had a lot of work on his hands. Even though his whole body was telling him to give up and go to sleep. He kept going. Working to bring food and money home, and raising a little brother who was too kind for his own safety... while _she_ was busy indulging in Asgore's every whim, and performing stars know what kind of experiments on dissidents. Oh, how he was mad at her. Oh boy, was he. Mad at her for staying there, in _his_ home, hidden, locked up, blindly following Asgore's orders. Because she love the king so much, and Undyne too, oh boy did she treasured them more than HIM.

_And she had the nerves to call in the middle of the night because she needed him._

All those years in the lab felt like they belonged to another world, another person, another life. And perhaps they did. From the other side of the universe, Alphys reached for him once again.

 

“ _Please, Rust... I... I don't know what to do...”_ she stuttered, sobbing nervously.

She was crying. And somehow, as strong as his anger was, it calmed him down. She had changed a lot over the years, not for the best, he knew it, and that... was not normal. Never had he heard Alphys so undone and desperate. Except once, just once, during that fucking night they spent in the lab, ten years earlier, when the Underground was at war. After Toriel was banished in the Ruins with her followers. The night the Underground fell.

 

“alphys ?” he muttered, confused, standing up to sit on the old mattress.

 

“ _I... I fucked up, Rust... I really... Please come to the lab, I'm begging you!”_

 

“what are y-”

There was a loud noise behind her, the sound of someone, something, banging loudly against something made of metal. A wall. A door. Loudly. Brutally. Loud noise, terrified squeals from Alphys.

“alphys, what **the fuck** is going on?”

 

“ _Please come! I really really fucked up Rust, please he's going to break the door!”_ whispered Alphys, hysterical, her voice more whimpers and squeals than words.

 

“where are you?”

 

“ _In the old bathroom, north wing...”_

**_Bang. Bang. BANG._ **

 

“hide. i'm coming.”

He didn't let her time to answer, hung up and jumped out of bed. He reached for his shorts and nailed boots, his black hoodie, and ran down the crumbling staircase of the building. Thank whichever god was passing, that Papyrus now lived in the Capital and wouldn't be there to scream at his brother for being late for breakfast. The fucker was getting bossier and bossier every fucking year. As if HE was the older one. Perhaps that was fair punishment for all the shit Rust had put him through over the years.

_* you'll thank me one day, boss._

 

Hotland was too far away for him to teleport. First he'd have to reach at least the border of Waterfall. The streets of Snowdin were empty, no one was there to see the small, scrawny skeleton dressed in red and black, rushing to the exit of the city.

He couldn't feel the cold. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he also wanted to grab Alphys by the collar and slap her. He reached Waterfall and glitched through reality.

* * *

 

The lab was dark when he glitched inside. Dark and messy. But he could make out a giant screen, and a desk he knew very well for it was his, back in the day. Now its surface was hidden under papers, notes, a computer, and an impressive amount of empty cups of instant noodles.

He threw himself in the elevator and almost smashed the panel in his hurry to go down in the basement lab. That old machine was freaking slow, and had always been. Even the noise was exactly the same as before, he noticed. Same roar, same little clicking of cables and ropes halfway through... One of the first sound he ever registered. That, and the sound of Gaster's steps in the corridors, going back to his bedroom after saying goodnight and turning the lights off...

_* nope, don't go that way._

 

He growled and gripped his skull with both his hands. Now was not the time to remember the past. Even though every breath of air, every wall was bringing back memories, downright screaming them at his face. He could still remember the last time he used that elevator. Papyrus in his arms, Alphys following him, after grabbing a couple of things in his bedroom, dashing to the Ruins, before the Royal Guards could catch them. Someone had to pay for Gaster's treason, and since that lunatic had erased himself from this plane of existence, well, his assistants would suffice. The little, stuttering yellow dinosaur, and the lazy skeleton who was always sleeping on the job.

The failed experiment.

**_CLANG._ **

_~ Ding._

 

Doors opening in a low scraping sound. He dashed out of the cabin, through the corridors.

“ALPHYS!”

He didn't remember the lab to be that dark. Back when he was still living here, there were small night lights near the ground, bathing the corridors in a soft blue light. But most of them were now out of order, the rest was covered in a thick layer of dust. Since when had Alphys cleaned up the place? He guessed she wasn't using the basement lab anymore, now that she worked alone, but damn...

He arrived in the first lobby, in front of the door of the elevator leading to the castle. And froze.

A thick, viscous trail of transparent liquid was coming out of the operation chamber, staining the tiles. The trail was leading to the corridor where the...

...bathroom was...

He then noticed the silence.

_Alphys._

 

He darted a look to the thin layer of dust covering the tiles and swallowed.

He would have given everything to hear the loud banging from earlier. Perhaps whatever had been trying to kick down the door had given up. Perhaps it was now roaming the corridors, in search of a prey. Or something to hug.

He rushed.

_* please don't be dead. fuck, i'm sorry, i'm a dumbass and an asshole but please don't be dead._

 

There was something in front of the bathroom door. And it was _human_.

_* for fuck's sake what have you done?_

It wasn't exactly “ _a”_ human, because he knew for sure they shouldn't be that big, and they weren't supposed to have more than two arms. The human... thing turned what was probably his head towards him, and all Rust could think of was that it probably didn't have a skull under all that... pulsating flesh.

But it had teeth. Apparently, as messed up as his body was, it thought that teeth were important. Even in places where no one would never want to see them.

 

The door had been ripped off its hinges, but the thing couldn't enter the bathroom. The door frame was too small.

He took a step back and felt his soul pulse, hard, with the other one in front of him. The thing clumsily turned towards the skeleton, fumbling with its mismatched legs, regardless of a center of gravity that wasn't even situated in its own body. Chaos of flesh and labyrinth of bones, nails and suffering.

 

Transparents claws ripped through the air, blurry spots of keratin. He barely dodged them, rolling on his side, and a swarm of red, scarlet bones flew from his left hand, bursting through the quivering mass in a splatter of bloody magic. One step backward, he couldn't flee, one step backward again, keeping his disgusting work in sight. Impossible limbs twitching in pain.

The thing opened its mouth and screamed.

Holy fuck, that _scream._

Something hit his skull. Hard. The sound, the smell of bones splitting.

Pain. Screams. His own.

Flash. Blinding flash and the buzzing of electricity. Scream.

The sound of a body collapsing in a mess of blood and bones.

Gasp.

“ _RUST!”_

Black.

* * *

 

_His own screams woke him up. There were stars above him, but his eye-sockets were filled with tears, reducing them to hazy dots._

_Soul pulsing in fading terror._

_WING DING!_

_But nobody came._

_Nobody ever came._

_His screams echoed in the basement, and no one was there to hear them._

_He walked to the elevator, his feet clicking on the cold tiles._

_The shadows were thick and stuck to the walls, dripping to the ceiling in square-shaped drops._

_Elevator... Stairs._

_The grey door._

_The door opened and he walked into a familiar bedroom._

_Wing Ding._

_Someone answered. A tall, slender form in the bed, rising, sitting, looking at him with concern._

_White noise._

“ _i'm lost, wing ding.”_

_White noise._

_Why couldn't he remember his features?_

“ _help me.”_

_The tall figure stood up and came closer. Kneeled in front of him in a blurry mess of glitches._

 

_Ẉ̣ͯ̈̇͛ͣå̜̠͐̃ͭ͒̒͠k̷͕̼̖̮͉͕̲̅ͯ̈̒͢͟e̽̓͛̃͊҉̡̧̯̥̝̬̺̥̞ ̐ͮ͏̜͓̞͖̯̯ư͚̥̈ͭͭ̀̾̀̑ͦ͠p̬̤̦͈̪͎͙ͩ̐ͯ̆̏ͥ̚,̼̪̥̤̮̬̣̱̩̿͐̓͑͋ ̶̗̱͈̪̱̩͎̰̣̌̃ͭ̔͋̊͞S̤̣̺̥͛̒̊̑́̚̕͟͞ȁͦ͐͒ͧ̆ͭ͏͢͏̠̖̤̟n̸̪̻ͯͭͪ͑͆ͥ̒ͨͧ͝s̴̥̿̅̐ͩ̽́ͭ͛͞.͙̞̥̪͐̇́͌͊̈́_

 

* * *

 

Just a heartbeat and he was conscious again. Weird. He didn't have a heart. But he was conscious, or barely, at least his eyes were open, and someone was holding him in their arms.

 

“Drink it, Rust, please... Don't dust between my hands.” groaned a familiar voice.

Ah, she was alive then. He'd get angry later. For now, he looked at the glass she was holding against his fangs. A reddish glint caught his half-lidded gaze and he pushed her back.

 

“if you tell me this is liquid determination, i slap you.”

 

“It's _ketchup_ , Rust.”

 

“don't like ketchup anymore. gimme mustard.”

 

“That's all I have right now, and you're going to drink it and restore your HP or else I will be the one punching you, you... _KNUCKLEHEAD_!” squealed Alphys, hysterical. “I just escaped death too, do you hear me complaining?!”

 

Before he could protest, she roughly pinched his mandible, forcing his mouth open, and poured the ketchup in his throat. It was sour and tasted like stale tomatoes, but it was still effective... and it wasn't liquid Determination. Since the discovery that Determination could be turned into liquid and consumed, it was used as medication... but only in last resort, because of the side effects. Like melting flesh and blood rage. He felt his soul warm up a bit, a sign that his HP were back to normal. That is to say not so high, but it's not like he could do anything about it.

He pushed her a bit more forcefully than he intended to, and got up on his feet. His head was still painful... and spinning.

“my... skull...”

 

“It looks like the crack won't go away anytime soon.” said Alphys.

Indeed, he felt a huge crack under his fingers, going from the top of his skull to his right eyebrow and above his nasal cavity. Well, it's not like he wasn't already ugly.

“Rust...”

 

“what have you done, alphys?” he bit, glaring at her.

She tripped on her lab coat and almost fell backward.

 

“I...”

 

A skeletal hand gripped her red and black striped shirt, pulling her close, dangerously close from his sharp fangs. She stared at the gold one and gulped.

“ **w h a t h a v e y o u d o n e ?** ”

 

“ _I... I tried to clone a human! Please let me go!_ ” screamed the little scientist, struggling to escape the heavy gaze of the two black holes staring at her very soul.

The light went back in Rust's eye-sockets, but he didn't let her go.

 

“you did _what?_ ”

 

“Let me explain?” she pleaded.

Much to his surprise, she wasn't even _that_ scared. The Alphys he knew would have bursted into tears and apologized until he'd told her everything was fine. (it wasn't) But that one... That one was just embarrassed, and a bit shaken. Then he noticed the little spirals twirling in her cracked glasses. The dark circles under her eyes. The striped shirt and the torn, stained lab coat. And...

Part of him thought that he would have given his soul to just see her cry and apologize, like before. The other part thought that she was tougher than before, and that it was for the best. And frankly he wasn't sure which one he was willing to listen.

He released her. She straightened her clothing nervously and adjusted her glasses on her nose while he stepped out of the bathroom and looked at the corpse of the abomination, now dead. Behind him, Alphys leaned against the tiled wall and stared at her feet.

 

“A few years ago, I spotted a human near Snowdin, thanks to my cameras. I... kept it a secret. When a human is captured, he is to be killed or at least brought to Asgore so he can take his soul, and this isn't an order one can ignore. It's mandatory and anyone who would keep the human for themselves is...”

 

“sentenced to death, yeah, i know. you're telling you willingly disobeyed asgore? _you?_ ”

 

“I had my reasons. And... an idea. An idea Asgore... doesn't agree with, for some reason I don't know about. It's simple, Rust : _cloning humans_ . Cloning them would be so much easier, can you imagine?! We wouldn't have to wait until another human falls down here and capture him. We could collect seven human souls in one year, break the Barrier and _be free_!”

He blinked several times, baffled. She was right. She was so fucking right. But…

 

“... wait, you have the equipment to clone humans?” he asked, turning to face her.

 

“... That's... where I fucked up.” she admitted, joining him outside of the bathroom. “I... please don't be mad at me... Do you remember that... device Gaster used to... create you? You know... the plier he used to punch holes in the palm of his hands? And... how he used those parts of his body to... create you and Papyrus?”

Oh, fuck.

 

“alphys...”

 

“YES I know, that's not how human cloning works.” she argued, waving her arms dismissively. “Whatever. I tried. And... _that's_... the result... He's been sleeping in a tub for all this time. He... I... I never understood why he... ended up like this. Or why he suddenly woke up and... tried to kill me.”

 

Rust pinched the bone between his eye-sockets and plucked a cigarette from the pack in his hoodie, before shoving it between his fangs and lighting the tip with his magic.

“Can you not smoke in the l-”

 

“fuck that, alphys. what happened to the other human?”

She sighed.

 

“When I collected enough DNA, I brought him to Asgore. He's dead, now.”

 

“what did you do with the clone's soul?”

While talking, he started heading to the operation chamber, near the entrance of the lab. Alphys followed him, averting her gaze from her dead experiment. It was almost clogging the corridor.

 

“Stored it in one of the vessels. I'll send it to Asgore later... I... I'll tell him you were the one who captured and killed him.”

 

Rust rose a pierced eyebrow, the little rings tinkling softly.

“... why would you do that?”

 

“Well... It... seems only fair.”

He felt silent. Somehow, there was no denying that. She was the one who delivered the final blow, but... After all, she was also the one who called for help, and he was the one who almost got dusted to save her. Taking the kill would have been wrong. Figures, she still had some moral.

 

“you really fucked up.” he groaned when they reached the operation chamber.

 

“I know.”

The ground was a sticky with the trail of liquid left by the abomination. He could see the secret door leading to the... incubator. That's where the trail was coming from. The secret door had been destroyed too. He carefully avoided looking into the darkened room. There were things in there that he didn't want to see again.

 

“not just this time.” he added, opening the door to the closet where he knew medical supplies were stored.

 

“That too.”

Now, where was that stuff…

 

“and if asgore finds out what you've done, you're going to be in a lot of trouble.”

 

“... You... you're not going to tell him, are you?”

 

“nah.” he answered, his voice muffled by the sound of him shuffling in the closet.

 

“Oh... what are you doing ?”

 

“we need to get rid of that thing before asgore decides to pay a little visit to his favorite scientist. and before dawn.” answered Rust before turning his head to her. “ever buried a body?”

 

“What? No! Of course not!”

 

“welp, me neither.”

He threw something at her and she caught it by reflex, almost letting it fall.

It was a bone saw.

She raised her head, horrified, and met his gaze.

“life is made of experiences, pal. tonight we're trying the whole “hiding a body” thing. so brace yourself and find me a bunch of plastic bags. **n o w**.”

* * *

 

She helped him carry the bags up to the twisted cliffs of Hotland, where nobody lived yet. To her credit, she didn't flinch nor complained when they sawed the limbs. After all, she'd prolly done worse before. They weren't going to bury the damn thing, in the end. Throwing it in a lava pit was a better idea. It would dissolve, and nobody would ever find a pile of malformed bones between two rocks, possibly connecting the dots between that and the royal scientist. Perhaps that wasn't exactly respectful for the body... but frankly he didn't give a single fuck.

“Shouldn't we be... saying something before doing that?”

 

They were standing at the top of a red cliff, thirty meters above a bubbling lake of lava. They'd piled the plastic bags between them, and Alphys was holding what he could have swore was the “head” of the creature.

“you mean like a farewell speech ? sure. dear abomination, you lived, you did nothing, you died. rest in _pieces_. hehe.”

 

“Rust, that's just mean! And highly inappropriate.”

 

“since when do you care about human dignity, anyway?” spat the skeleton, frowning. “do you think humans would care about ours?”

 

“We're not like them, Rust.”

The skeleton looked at the bag he was holding in his blood-soaked hands. Blood stuck to his bones, red and putrid, like liquid Determination. The pile of human parts was dripping, volcanic dust and blood turning into a warm, reddish mud. He threw his cigarette in the lava pit and glanced at her.

 

“you sure about that?”

Silence fell between them like ashes. She was still right, he thought. Maybe they should be saying something. He tried to remember the soul of the abomination, but could only see red. Red and pain. Born in the dark, unwanted, disappointing. Forgotten and hidden, like a dirty secret.

 

“You didn't deserve that. I'm sorry.” whispered Alphys to the bag in her hands.

The bags were already burning when they reached the surface of the lake.

Perhaps hiding the proof of a crime punishable by death was the best way to reconcile two friends. Or perhaps something in Rust's mind had shifted earlier. He'd seen the glint in her eyes, when she was talking about Asgore. That, and the scars on her hands. He knew there would be many more up her wrists, he didn't need to check.

 

 _* since when have you been living for asgore and undyne instead of living for_ yourself _?_

They went back to the lab silently, creeping between the cliffs, avoiding the areas where monsters lived. Silence wasn't falling anymore, it had set, and its roots were digging through their throats.

 

When they reached the lab, Alphys looked back at him, unsure of what to do. Rust was, yet again, smoking a cigarette, looking towards the shallow river down the rocky hill. Avoiding her eyes. She stared at the piercings in his eyebrows for a moment, and wondered...

She broke the silence, her voice hesitant.

“Thanks for the assist, by the way”

 

“mmm.”

 

One second. Two. Three. Four...

“Why didn't you come back to the lab?”

 

He froze and turned his head towards her abruptly.

“... why do you have to bring this up after all this time?” he sighed in a low growl.

 

“Because it's been years since I felt like I could talk openly to someone.”

His soul pulsed.

_* fuck._

“You could have... I mean... I never forbid you...”

 

“why did you stay?” he cut, his voice cold.

She blinked, taken aback. Her back stiffened under his gaze. He wasn't just annoyed. He looked pissed the hell off and she could have swore he looked slightly bigger than before.

 

“I... I couldn't leave, Rust.” Alphys whimpered. “The lab... our work... it was so important for me. It's the only place where I ever felt... at home. You all were like a family to me. I thought... it was the same for you.” she added, frowning.

 

“ _it was_ , alphys. that's why i never came back. fuck, can you imagine how it feels to walk those empty corridors, those empty rooms? to feel... their... absence? _his_ absence."

He paused and stared at her. She was looking at her feet. He could almost see the dozens of thought running through her brain at the same time.

 

"and frankly, i didn't want to work for asgore. not after everything that happened... not after what he did to the underground. how could _you_?” he spat.

 

There were monsters children out there fighting each other under the eyes of their teachers. Kids with LV higher than his. There was hope in the Underground and it was soaked in blood and monster dust. In his nightmare, he could still see the few friends he and Alphys used to share turn to dust under the boots of the Royal Gards. Human-lover traitors. Filth. Weaklings. There was so much dust and blood on his hands, no doubt about that, but Asgore was the one who made military training mandatory, and hunted down weak, kind souls. Because now was the Age of LOVE and Determination. Not the Age of... love.

 

Alphys shook her head, twisting her fingers like she always did when she was nervous and felt guilty.

 

“He... I know you hate him, S... Rust. But he really... he's broken. In many ways and... I didn't want to leave him alone.”

She knew she had fucked up again when Rust's eye-sockets started twitching. He got close for the second time this night, but didn't even bothered grabbing her.

 

“What about me?” he purred darkly, a twisted, joyless smile forming on his mou... _maw_.

 

“Hu?”

 

“what about _me_ , alphys? where were you, when I needed you?”

 

“You... you had Papyrus...” she tried, despite knowing that it was a shitty excuse.

 

“papyrus is my little brother, alphys. i needed a _friend._ i needed you. _damnit alphys you were all i had left!_ ”he snapped, his vision blurring.

 

“I... I'm sorry.” she said, her eyes widened in shocked realisation.

And he knew she was telling the truth. He could see it in her soul.

They stared at each other, perfectly still. Both their mind buzzing with conflicting thoughts. Again, she didn't looked scared, but shocked, mouth slightly opened, revealing two sharp front teeth, sharper than before, like a lot of things in her. The childish side of her features, of her soul, was gone.

 

_Say something. Tell her. Tell her everything you couldn't say for all those years. Get angry. Scream. Cry. Slap her, punch her, take everything you've been hiding to everyone and throw it in her face and make her cry too, make her pay for the silence, for the nights spent staring at the ceiling with all those things boiling in your soul, pleading for their freedom. Do it._

_Dust her._

_Dust the past and move on._

_You're filled with Deter-_

“i missed you.”

 

The words left him before he could stop them, in a tired sighed. He wasn't exactly sure _he_ had been the one talking, at first. The voice was too low. Too soft, almost a whisper.

Was that a glimpse of pale blue he just felt in the red boiling of his determined soul? A glint of…

 

“I missed you too.” murmured Alphys.

That, too, was true.

 

They both relaxed, just a bit, and she rubbed her eyes, clearly exhausted. He wasn't feeling any better. This conversation had drained him of everything he had left, and he just wanted to lay down and stop moving. Take the time to process all that had been said, and happened, outside, and inside of him. Maybe get drunk.

 

“Shouldn't you... going back to sleep? I mean... It's... late. And...”

And she was right. Fuck, when did she become so rational and mature?

_* probably when she had to clean up monster dust for the first time. that kind of shit makes you grow up pretty fucking fast._

 

“yeah... maybe. you comin'?”

 

“Where?”

 

“my place. you don't want to sleep alone in the lab after all that shit.”

 

“I...”

 

“that wasn't a question.”

She yelped when he pulled her against him, locking a skeletal arm around her waist. His ribcage was hard and pokey under her torso, and his hoodie smelled of alcohol and mustard.

“close your eyes. we're taking a shortcut.”

* * *

 

When she opened her eyes again, they were in Snowdin.

Half-melted, dirty snow was slowly raining from the ceiling of the Underground, flooding the streets with mush and mud. Thanks to the factories for that. Oh, how Snowdin had changed. After the Fall, monsters had... well, let just say they felt a powerful need to create more monsters. More soldier to wipe out the dreaded humanity from the surface of the Earth. Since then the Capital had spread, crawling through cliffs, canyons and tunnels, before merging with Snowdin, reducing the small village to a tumor swelling on its sides like a cancerous growth, an ugly suburb made of crumbling buildings and wastelands. The snow was grey and the night never ended.

 

Snowdin was slowly rotting in the dark and nobody fucking cared.

Rust took her to a building like any other building, old and worn, then in a staircase filled with the scent of mold, smoke, and general despair. He unlocked a door under which she swore she could see flickers of flames, and let her inside. She wasn't exactly surprised about the “flames”. His bedroom door in the lab used to do the same thing, but she had no idea why.

 

“make yourself at home. be right back.”

He disappeared into what she supposed was the kitchen, not even bothering to turn on the light. The streetlights were sufficient, though, bathing the small living room in a sickly, orange hue. She sat on the couch and looked around. The place was small, tight and crowded with furniture, probably bought (or stolen, considering his crumbling sense of morality and his talent for teleportation) in a flea market. And reeked of smoke.

“i could say i'm sorry for the mess but i don't really care, no offense. too lazy to clean up.” said Rust, coming back, and holding something in his hands.

 

“Is that... ?”

 

“booze.”

 

“But I don't drink...”

 

“listen alphys, buddy, chum, pal, sweetheart” growled Rust, straight in her face, his nasal cavity only inches from her muzzle. “you woke me up in the middle of the night after years of silence to hide a body. i need a drink, _you_ need a drink, and i don't want to hear a “no” or i swear i'll jam that stuff down your throat.”

 

He shoved a can of beer in her hands and sat beside her.

“drink.” he ordered dryly.

Reluctantly, she obeyed. There was the cracking of two opened cans. Rust gulped his beer down as if he hadn't drank in years, while Alphys took a prudent sip. Then, silence.

 

“It's not that bad.” she admitted.

 

“first crime, first drink and maybe even first hangover, all in one night. cheers, girl.” mocked Rust, wallowed on the couch

_* and first time i willingly decide to try and forgive someone. this night is full of surprises._

By the time alphys finished her can, he was opening his third.

 

“You shouldn't drink that much, you know...”

 

“i know and i don't care.”

He wanted to sound angry and failed miserably. Instead he just sounded tired and sad. He didn't stop alphys when she took his can out of his hands and set it on the wooden crate, serving as a table, in front of them.

 

“I forgot you... I forgot that you were probably suffering too.” she admitted coyly “I was so busy... trying to make Asgore better, and... making him and Undyne proud. I... I should have never left you alone after all this... But you shouldn't have left me alone, either. You... should have told me.”

 

“i know.”

He took off his hoodie, picked up a cigarette and lighted it. Alphys closed her eyes and listened to the soft breathing of the skeleton, inhaling then exhaling the smoke between his fangs towards the ceiling.

“i guess we've both been idiots.”

 

“Yeah.”

A snap of his fingers, and the window opened, its handle bathed in red magic, letting the cold air in, and the smoke out.

 

“i still ain't coming back to live in the lab. but if you need any help in the future... call me. and i mean _any_ help.”

He looked her dead in the eyes, then lowered his gaze to her wrists. Then looked at her again.

 

She smiled. It was a tired, sad smile, but it was still a real smile.

“Thank you.”

 

That was the closest to “sorry” he would ever say, she knew and accepted it. Rust wasn't the only one with a keen eye and a working brain. There were things in his mind, things he would confess later. In one week, one month, one year, whatever. For now, he was processing what forgiveness felt like, and realised it felt a lot like mercy.

 

Later, when she fell asleep, he put an arm around her shoulders, and allowed her to rest her head against his ribcage, something no one else had ever done, and would ever do. Then, as sleep was claiming him at last, he heard, through the open window, the sound of the Underground slowly waking up.

Another day of pain and restless battle was starting. But somehow, he knew it, in this merciless world, they were both a bit safer, and less alone.

  



End file.
